G'day,
My name is Bruce Robertson and this is Pirate Philosophy, the channel in which I describe the Pattern Paradigm; a new, rigorous and exciting approach to philosophy.
Welcome.
In previous videos, I have described in some detail the fundamentals of the Pattern Paradigm and how it is an accurate fit to the facts of the world. So now I want to show how the Pattern Paradigm can improve one's understanding of the world and more specifically to present responses and perhaps answers to many of the popular questions of philosophy. This will be a new series of videos.
I have taken the questions from websites on the Internet and will be taking them in no particular order.
So let's get started.
Today's questions are:
1. Are humans innately good or evil?
2. Do humans need God to exist?
3. What happens when we die? Does consciousness continue after physical death?
4. What makes us human? What makes human life so valuable?
5. Why does suffering happen?
Question 1
Are humans innately good or evil?
Now the answer to that question is going to depend to a great deal on what one considers is meant by the word good and the word evil.
If one looks for a definition of it in a dictionary or something like that, a lot of the time all one gets is a circular description or definition of the word in terms of other words which go around in circles and do not relate to the real world. So I will be using the definitions of good and evil as good meaning creates happiness and evil as creates unhappiness. The thing about happiness is that they can be directly related to the real world and are not just merely abstract words that belong only in a fantasy world.
So answering that question: Are humans innately able to create happiness? Well, certainly they are. Where else can happiness come from? Humans are innately able to create happiness and as such one can simply conclude that humans are innately good.
Question 2.
Do humans need God to exist?
Well, clearly in this case God refers to the concept of God. Do humans need the concept of God to exist? Well, humans have existed for many hundreds of thousands of years, long before the concept of God was created, and as such humans do not need God in order to exist. I know many people like the concept of God, the fantasy of God, to supplement the happiness of their lives; but they don't need it and we do not need God in order to exist.
Question 3
What happens when we die? And supplementary question: Does consciousness continue after physical death?
Well, very simply, what happens when we die is that we decompose. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Does consciousness continue after physical death?
Well, I have discussed consciousness in an earlier video entitled 'A Theory of Consciousness'. In which I explained or postulated how consciousness is emergent from the logic of thinking. It comes from the logic of pattern identification, and it is emergent from that and exists within the brain. So after we die the physical death, consciousness is no more.
Question 4.
What makes us human? And supplementary question, what makes human life so valuable?
Well, what makes us human, again from evolution, is our genetic code and how that codes into phenotypes of arms, legs, brains, hearts and all that. That is what makes us human. And it has come about through hundreds of millions of years of evolution.
What makes human life so valuable? Well, it's all that we have. Without human life, we would have nothing. So in that case, it is intrinsically valuable. And as mentioned earlier. we can create happiness, and that is also valuable.
Question 5
Why does suffering happen?
Well, again, it depends a little bit what you mean by suffering. When I think of suffering, I think of the emperor penguins in Antarctica, where the males for two months in the Antarctic winter stand around in the snow and the ice and the stormy cold winds looking after their egg, while the mother of the egg has gone to the sea to look for fish. And I imagine there is not much worse than standing naked in Antarctica with winds and temperatures that can drop as low as minus 40 degrees.
So any human suffering I would compare with that and would say it is probably to a much lesser degree than that. But that said, certainly humans do suffer, but it is part of life and life is trouble and that is what makes it so exciting and wonderful. And if one is or does suffer, then hopefully it gives motivation to improve one's situation, to end the suffering.
Well, that is all I have for you today. I hope you have enjoyed this video. If you have any comments or if there is a question you would like me to answer, then leave them in the section below. Also please subscribe to my channel, give it a thumbs up and ring the bell.
Thank you.
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